India include Riyan Parag, Nitish Reddy in Shubman Gill led squad for Zimbabwe T20I tour

Nitish Reddy and Riyan Parag have been rewarded for their excellent runs in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), with the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee including both in the Shubman Gill-led squad for India’s tour of Zimbabwe that takes place next month.

Rajasthan Royals batter Parag had finished the third-highest run-scorer with 573 runs at an average and strike rate of 52.09 and 149.21 respectively while Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Reddy scored 303 runs at 33.67 and a strike rate of 142.92 respectively.

Gill, who had been named as one of the travelling reserves for the ongoing T20 World Cup and was released after the conclusion of the group stage, has been named captain.

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Senior wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who had been named in the squad but hasn’t made an appearance in USA or in the Caribbean except in the warm-up clash against Bangladesh, has been included as one of the two wicketkeeper options along with Dhruv Jurel.

Some of the other players who accompanied the Rohit Sharma-led T20 World Cup squad to the US and the Caribbean and have been named in the Zimbabwe travel party are opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, finisher Rinku Singh and pacers Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed.

Jaiswal was included in the squad along with Samson but has been benched throughout the tournament with skipper Rohit opening alongside Virat Kohli. Rinku, Avesh and Khaleel, meanwhile, were included in the travelling reserves along with Gill.

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Also included in the pace department are Tushar Deshpande and Mukesh Kumar, the latter finishing as Chennai Super Kings’ highest wicket-taker in the recent IPL with 17 wickets.

As for the spin department, the Men in Blue have gone with leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi and off-spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar.

Bishnoi had been overlooked for the T20 World Cup with the Men in Blue including Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as their wrist-spin and Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel as their finger-spin options.

India will play five T20Is in the southern African nation between 6 and 14 July, with all of the matches taking place at the Harare Sports Club. The Men in Blue had last visited the country in 2022, in which they swept a three-match ODI series.

India had made back-to-back tours to Zimbabwe in 2015 and 2016 respectively and on both occasions, the home team had managed to pull off an upset victory over the Indians.

India squad for the T20I tour of Zimbabwe: Ꮪhubman Gill (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Nitish Reddy, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande

Broadcast details: The five-match India vs Zimbabwe T20I series will be broadcast in four languages – English, Hindi, Tamil & Telugu - on Sony Sports Network. The five-match T20I series will be broadcast on Sony Sports Ten 3 (Hindi) SD & HD, Sony Sports Ten 4 (Tamil / Telugu) & Sony Sports Ten 5 SD & HD.